They stole cables, slowing down the trains between Pilsen and Prague
Václav Kraus (32) and Miroslav Horváth (61) needed money for drugs. Since they are both only on disability pensions and de facto homeless, they decide to set out to steal and then cash in on the cables.
Miroslav Horváth was brought to court by an escort from the prison, Václav Kraus by the police.
| Video: Milan Kilian
With their choice, however, they really messed up the railway transport operators and passengers, because they cut three cables used to power the security device for. They significantly complicated the transport between Pilsen and Prague, the trains had to run on only one track instead of two, it had to be checked whether they had really passed and were already at the next station, thus increasing delays. Both perpetrators were caught red-handed and now stand before the Pilsen City Court. They face up to six-year suspended sentences.
None of the defendants voluntarily appeared in court. Horváth, for whom it was definitely not a court premiere, was brought by an escort from a prison sentence, Krause was brought by five police officers. It’s not the first time he’s standing before the court either, last March he was given a suspended sentence for breaking the bars in the window of the newly established quarantine place for people with covid in Pilsen together with a friend.
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A few days after this verdict, Kraus met with Horváth. “He told me we were going to copper. I got meth at the station, we injected it, then we took the ax he had hidden in the bushes and went to the track. There were some loose cables. I started a fire and burned the cables, and Horváth said that something could be done. I told him not to cut the thick cable, but…,” claimed Kraus. Horváth refused to testify.
Their activities were discovered very quickly. One device signaled malfunctions to the dispatcher, reporting damage to the cables. He immediately reported this to a colleague who works as a switch supervisor at the Railway Administration (SŽ). “We looked through binoculars and saw two people in the railway yard who had no business there. We called the police and went to the scene,” Ludmila B. told the court. Police patrols arrested both perpetrators in the act when Horváth tried to flee.
enough that SŽ caused a real problem. “They cut three cables, each with a length of 95 m, used to power the security device of the signal for the railway circuits, which caused damage in the amount of CZK 23,850, while by cutting the cable they caused the decommissioning of part of the station security device at the Plzeň railway station, which ensures the safety of the trains and moving parts, they specifically disabled the part ensuring the occupancy of track sections, when as a result it was necessary to determine the occupancy of track sections only by physical inspection and it was also necessary to take measures in the form of reducing the speed of passing trains in the section from 80 to 40 km/h, which it also had an effect on the flow of traffic,” said prosecutor Michal Himmer, adding that Horváth was also guilty of obstructing the execution of an official decision, as he avoided the start of a two-year sentence and was only put behind bars by the police when they caught him.
The verdict could come in February.